WINDY GYLE 10 MILER FROM TROW (The Edge of the Roman Empire)
Leaving North Shields at 6am we drove 6 miles east of Alwinton to a hardstanding where we parked up. The name of the place was Trow. The area is of outstanding panorama and of course the memories came flooding back as we passed a tiny farm by the name of Carshope i kept on reminding the lads of the time when i was a Soldier and we bombed our magazines up in a barn and his wife came out with the cuppas then in a hail of machine gun bullets we came under attack from the otterburnia freedom fighters. I still say the farmer tipped them off. But thats not important what is important is i dont have to run up hills these days i walk.
The walk was up hill for the first 2 miles the steepness varies but the wind was blowing in our favour and Gary Smith had the sweets. Heading towards the North Pennine way The Cheviot was in full view( happy days)
As our ascent levelled out we came to the Scottish border. "Yes" i did want to do the cheesy tourist thing and put one foot in scotland and leave the other in England but remember a couple of moments ago i mentioned Cheviot and happy days. Well...the cheviot had dissapeared and the sky had became black at this point, the wind had became gail force and i knew that this wasn't the time for photos it was a time to Get higher. Instead of the rain coming to us we went to the rain. That's right folks, we ascended Windy Gyle it was like something from 500 Spartons as we fought our way to the summit and took refuge in Russells Cairn just by the trig point(it was epic). We took some water and Gary took a stone . The rain had stopped and yet again it was "happy days" We headed off from the cairn into the college valley the ground was similar to that of the Allendale challenges peat bogs and bastard grass. Using the OS map we adjusted the route slightly as we had made good time and 13 mile is better than 10mile especially when its sunny. I had covered mee heed after getting it burnt a couple of weeks earlier. We headed into Clennell Street forest and followed the water course of uswaypath burn and took in some impressive waterfalls finaly we returned to Trow. The walk took 5hours 30 and in stages is physically demanding would be a nice little warm up for the Allendale 2010 if you hit on with a mid winter wet week. Next Saturday its back in to the lakes (wainrights yippeeee..) I'm wearing mee brown trousers and taking lots of loo roll incase we do some more of them ridge walks. Going to have to start a trail 100 count as a record of what i've summited
What's In The Title
Trying to keep things independant, the Blog was named on the 5th of May 2009 by Jimmy Reed with independance in mind and with no society or allegiance to either one body or the other.
ALLENDALE CHALLENGE 2009 RESULTS
finished 206 entry no 272 Alan Lockie 8hr.36min
finished 207 entry no 560 James Reed 8hr.36min
Total entrants 662
No shows 35
Retired 79
Found it Really hard but i cant wait to do the 2010 event and this time i'll wear gaitors and stay overnight in allendale for a night on the drink.
view full results @ following link http://www.northoftynesearchandrescue.org.uk/pages/allendalewalkers.html
ALLENDALE CHALLENGE 2010
It is always very popular and should be a "must do" event for any keen walker or fell runner.
The route covers some of the finest peat bogs in the North Peninnes. Taking an anti-clockwise loop from Allendale town the route takes in Hard Rigg, Black Hill, Kilhope Law before returning to the town via the Spartylea, The Drag, and Ladelwell. The weather on the event can be as challenging as the terrain which all adds to the fun.
Date:
April 2010
Distance:
(40Km)
Location:
Allendale, Hexham, Northumberland.
Start Time:
Walkers 8.00am Runners 10.00am
Entry includes; certificate, souvenir badge and refreshments Minimum Age: 18 years. (14 years accompanied by responsible adult)
The Route
1. Start Allendale
2. Chimney, 807537 (C)
3. Ninebanks, 784524 (CRT)
4. Hard Rigg, 750488(C)
5. Black Hill, 795444 (CRT)
6. Killhope Law, 819448 (C)
7. Smelt Mill, 851464 (CRT)
8. Spartylea, 851487 (CT)
9. Ladle well, 877525 (CT)
10. Stobb Cross,864539
11. Finish Village hall, Allendale (CR)
(C) denotes checkpoint
(T) denotes pickup point for retiring entrants
(R) denotes refreshments
Access
Please note that, although most of the route follows defined rights of way. Lord Allendale has kindly granted us permission to cross Allendale Stinted Land where there is no right of way. This permission is only for the duration of the Allendale Challenge and in no way infers a right of way on any other occasion.
The organisers are extremely grateful to Lord Allendale for this gesture.
General
All entrants who retire must report to the nearest checkpoint to arrange official transport to the finish, and MUST in any case report to the finish. In past events great concern has occasionally been caused by entrants going straight home having failed to report to the finish. Every entrant who satisfactorily completes the course will be awarded a certificate and badge depicting the event. Camping is available locally before and after the event. Allendale also has some fine hotel and B&B Accommodation.
Friday May 1st 2009 Ascent Of Helvellyn Via Striding Edge , Descent off Helvellyn via Swirral Edge on to the connicle summit of Catstycam.
The Distance (It doesn't matter cos it was well worth the slog) Altitude 3000ft +
Leaving North Shields at 06.45 we arrived at Ullswater at 08.50 with the early morning sun shining over the lapping waters & the peaks of The eastern fells making the odd appearance through the clouds.
We parked up in a Village by the name of Glennridding, a lovely little village on the shores of Ullswater.
We made our way out of Glennridding crossing over rattlebeck bridge up onto the high ground above miresbeck with some pretty stunning views of Ullswater to be had.
Before we knew it we had to check nav after a sign had been put on the gate at cross tarn with access prohibited or something like that. We took an alternative route bypassing Cross Tarn which was the right thing to do and eventually made our way back onto the track towards birkhouse moor & Striding Edge.
The track that advances onto Birkhouse Moor 2356ft gets steeper with more boulders and step overs as you get closer to Striding Edge. The views were amazing with Fairfields peak visable as we advanced above a forest hunreds of feet below which i would say is more of a 3 columned copse.
The very imposing and deadly Striding Edge was in view after we turned left at a style. With the plateau summit of Helvellyn coming and going in the clouds.
As we got onto the ridge i looked down at Red Tarn and seen the wind skimming the water and i started feeling dizzy & sick. A 400FT Sheer drop on one side 300ft sheer drop on the other, the wind was howling and by now i had forgotten about the scenery and my heart was pumping. One wrong move and you're over the side and if you're over the side you're dead.
Alan went first as he knows the score Gary second and me last. At times in the very clingy scrambling stages i was nearly in the state of freezing not from the cold but with fright. However, loose stones tumbling from gary's feet 30 foot above me, kept me moving as they were heading in my general direction ( I'm scared of heights by the way) I also took great comfort from my constant supply of boiled sweets that i had in my Berghaus, especially the green ones. This ridge walking thing is not for the feint hearted.
Throughout the walk, It became apparent that the higher we went the wind was becoming more emphasized and our bodies were becoming more exposed to the elements and it's a good job we had some experience in the party especially at the entre to Striding Edge, which is described all over the internet as most dangerous ridge walk in Britain if not Europe.
I crawled off striding edge a nervous wreck. Gary looked in a similar state but Alan was business as usual, and off we headed off towards the summit. At this point a nice big cloud came in and soaked us. Visability was reduced down to 20 foot at the most as we summited and we were getting shotblast by hail stones which were nearly as cheeky as the ridge we had just walked off. We headed towards the summit shelter near the trig point. Once we got to the shelter some blokey from Liverpool was there with his missus.
We had 5 minutes in the shelter for water and food and moved along the summit towards swirral edge. The summit has a couple of memorials to people who have died on Helvellyn, just to keep you ticking over and in the right frame of mind while you're up there.
It was now totaly throwing down with rain making the descent on to swirral edge tricky.Yet again Alans previous experience of Hellvellyn proved vital. Get over Swirral edge before the weather gets any worse. I could imagine swirral edge been a right difficult job if you were breaching it in the ascent of Helvellyn (in reverse)
The rock composition and geology varies in the area of swirral edge.Every now and then we were coming across what looked like white marble set into the normal rock this was really very slippy and worth staying well clear of. Rather than marble it's probably some division of calcite formed by a couple million years worth of pressure in the earth and then come the ice age it was pushed up to the surface.
We got across Swirral edge and made our ascent of catstycam 2919ft which to be honest was straight forward and not in Helvellyn's league. It was still nice though but the views were restricted as the weather was absolutely foul by this point.
We descended catstyecam, the path down is clear cut but the pressure on my knees due to the steep gradient was the most difficult thing about it.
When we got to the recess we married up with greenside beck and followed the course taking in water falls and disused lead mine workings as we made our way towards Lanty's Tarn which is also a wainwright in it's own.
Very worn out and very wet we made it back to the car park in Glenridding.
The walk took the best part of 6 hours.
THE FINAL WORD
Striding Edge is dangerous not for the weak or for those with big egos and for those who like to cut corners. I cant wait to do another ridge walk as it gives you the sense of been a very small person in a big big world.
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